Operation: MEMORY
by Animeaddict56
Summary: It had been seven years since Nigel Uno had left to join the Galactic Kids Next Door. Despite the excitement of saving entire galaxies from adult tyranny, he often found himself thinking about the friends he'd left on Earth. He wonders just what became of Sector V after they turned thirteen. Were they still friends, or had they become they very thing they used to fight against?


**Disclaimer – I do not own Codename: Kids Next Door.**

 **Note – I've been watching this show a lot lately, and this idea kept floating around in my head. I wondered if Sector V** _ **could**_ **remember each other after being decommissioned, since it only erased memories concerning the KND. I thought they surely had memories of each other that didn't involve the KND. But maybe that's just wishful thinking on my part, I don't know. Either way, read and enjoy.**

Operation: M.E.M.O.R.Y.

Memories

Endure

Many

Omitted

Repressed

Years

* * *

The mechanical whirl of the air vent was the only sound that invaded his ears as he sat alone in his room on the ship. Nigel Uno had never expected that space could be so quiet. Maybe it was because before joining the Galactic Kids Next Door, he'd always been used to a lot of noise whenever he was in space. The KND Moonbase was always loud with hundreds of his comrades milling about and working to stop adult tyranny. And even the trip to KND Moonbase was filled with noise, whether it was due to Numbuh 2's horrible puns, Numbuh 3 singing that ridiculous rainbow monkey song, or Numbuh 4 complaining about the aforementioned song.

Nigel sighed. Seven years later, and he still wasn't used to the silence. He wasn't sure he ever would be. Wasn't sure if he _wanted_ to be.

He stood from where he sat on his bed, and made his way over to his window. The entire expanse of space laid out before his eyes. Star after star, galaxy after galaxy. He'd learned the names and even the planets of quite a few of them, but some were still beyond him.

Now he stared toward the one he was most familiar with. The one he could find with his eyes closed, wishing he could see the tiny planet that his life had once revolved around. Earth.

 _". . . just promise me one thing: that you'll never grow up, even if you're a hundred years old and don't remember a thing about our times together. You will be a kid at heart okay?"_

Nigel sighed heavily. Sector V. It had been seven years since he'd left them. Just like him, they were older. Part of him always hoped and dreamed that his old team would become part of the Teens Next Door, the secret operatives that infiltrated the teenagers' gang in order to work for the KND on the inside, like Chad and Maurice had done. But he knew what the most likely outcome had been, and he shuddered whenever he let the word pass through his mind.

Decommissioning.

Had their memories of the KND and their times together been erased? Did they remember him? Did they remember each other? Did Wally still have that very obvious crush on Kuki, which she obviously returned? Well, obvious to everyone but Wally, that is.

And what about Hoagie? Was he still building different contraptions and experiments for science fairs? Was he still playing with Yipper cards? Was he still getting on Abby's nerves with all of his dumb jokes?

Abby. Was she still keeping the group together? Was she helping Wally with his homework, and going on candy runs with Hoagie? What about reading those girly magazines with Kuki?

Were his best friends still even friends? Or had they become the very thing they used to fight against? Teenagers on the cusp of adulthood. Had the disease spread to them too? Were their childhoods gone?

"Sector V . . . what are you doing now?"

* * *

"Come on, Tommy!" Hoagie yelled as he waited impatiently by the door of the Gilligan household. He was dressed in a simple white shirt with a light blue buttoned shirt over it, but left completely unbuttoned. His shaggy auburn hair was a bit of a mess under his tan-colored hat, and his bangs constantly flopped down into his eyes.

"Hold your horses, Hoagie!" The voice that yelled from upstairs cracked into a high pitch, making Hoagie laughed quietly. His little brother Tommy appeared seconds later, running down the stairs. He was dressed in black shorts and a blue shirt. He was also wearing Hoagie's old goggles over his eyes. Hoagie almost shook his head. He never understood why his brother had begged to have those old things when he'd talked about not wearing them anymore.

But Hoagie did roll his eyes at his brother's slow speed. "Man, why can't you just ride the bus?" he mumbled as they finally stepped out of the house.

Tommy looked at his brother smugly. "Because I'm in high school now! And _you_ have a car, so _you_ get to drive me."

Hoagie just shook his head as they climbed into his Oldsmobile. He swore he could hear it creaking as they sat down and closed the doors. He hated having his grandma's old car. The thing was just waiting to collapse on him. "You're such a kid," he grumbled.

As Hoagie had gotten older, he'd thinned out a lot. But his love for planes and space had never faltered. He dream of becoming a pilot and flying planes and jets, or maybe even going to space one day.

And as he'd gotten older, his brother Tommy seemed to bother him more and more. It'd gotten terrible once Hoagie had turned thirteen. Tommy would constantly barge into his room unannounced, go through his things, and would ask question after random and strange question. Thankfully in the last year or so, he'd gotten less annoying.

"So, Hoagie, are you going to be working on the car today?" Tommy asked eagerly. His voice cracked a little again. Puberty was hitting his voice hard lately.

Hoagie shook his head. "Not today, Tommy. I've got plans already. Maybe tomorrow." While his little brother often annoyed him, they did have one thing in common that they bonded over. Building and working on things. And Hoagie's newest project was his piece of junk car. So far, he'd only been able to fix the headlights from flickering, made it so _all_ of the windows could roll down and then back up, and got the engine to stop making that awkward spluttering noise whenever he started it up.

"Let me guess," Tommy said with a mocking tone and roll of his eyes. "You and Jacob have a science project to work on, and then you're going to watch some nerd show afterwards."

Hoagie sighed as he pulled into Gallagher High's parking lot. "Not that it's any of your business, but no. You're wrong." But Tommy's guess wasn't strange. Jacob was Hoagie's partner-in-crime when it came to science fairs. Like Hoagie, he was in all the upper-level science classes, and they were always working of physics and chemistry projects after school. They'd become friends in middle school, but they both felt as if they'd known each other longer than that. It was a strange feeling.

"Oh," Tommy mumbled. But then he brightened. "Well then do you think I could come along and hang out with you guys?"

Hoagie gave his brother an annoyed look as he parked the car. "You have your own friends, Tommy. Hang out with them, and let me hang out with mine."

* * *

"So with Homecoming just a few weeks away, we still need to talk about Spirit Week," Rachel McKenzie, the president of the senior class and student council of Gallagher High School, stated. She looked around at the other members of the council. "Any ideas?"

"Oh! I do!" Sonia, a freshman representative on the council, said with excitement. "I was thinking we could do a Decade Day, where students dress up like they're from another decade."

"Decade Day is a classic," Rachel murmured as she wrote the idea down.

"What about Superhero Day?" Nathan, a junior rep, asked eagerly.

"We did that last year, Nathan," Sonia complained. "You were the one that suggested it last year too!"

Rachel looked over to her vice president, and fellow senior council member. "Abby? Thoughts?"

Abigail Lincoln was the girl that had been voted the "Coolest Kid Ever" in the yearbook every year since she came to Gallagher High as a freshman. Her thick black hair was pulled back into a ponytail, her bangs brushing just above her eyes. She was learning back in her chair with her shoes propped up on the table. She was dressed in simple denim shorts and a white shirt that bared her midriff, which she hid by wearing a sleeveless blue jacket over it.

Abby looked over at Rachel, brought out of her thoughts and back to the real world around her. Truthfully, she hadn't wanted to take part in the student council this year, let alone be the vice president. But Rachel had practically begged her to return to the council, claiming that Abby helped keep the meetings calm and on track. And when she'd relented, the council had made her vice president.

. . . Well they'd actually tried to make her president, Rachel included. But she had refused, but agreed to take up vice president again, just so they'd leave it alone. She wasn't a fan of leadership positions.

"Well, I don't see the problem with doing Superhero Day again. But we might wanna discuss this later. The bell's gunna ring in less than ten minutes," Abby commented, pointing at the clock on the wall.

Rachel followed her gaze and nodded. "She's right. Let's meet again tomorrow morning, and we'll finish up this discussion. For now, meeting adjourned."

Abby dropped her feet from the table, and quickly stood and grabbed her bag. She needed to get to her locker, grab her books, and get to class. Mr. Jones threatened to give her a detention if she was even a second late for his government class again. She couldn't afford to have detention today. She had plans that were much more important.

"Abby! Wait up," Rachel called as Abby left the room.

Abby waited for her friend to catch up. "Yeah? What's up?"

"Do you know if Mr. Jones is picking up the homework he gave us yesterday?" Rachel asked as they walked down the halls.

"No, I think he said we had until tomorrow," Abby replied.

Rachel let out a sigh of relief. "Oh thank goodness. I only got half of it done last night. Harvey kept bugging me about needing help with his own homework, and it was pretty much impossible to let him suffer."

"Let me guess; Mrs. Keiner's geometry homework?" Abby guessed with a laugh.

Rachel laughed too. "The bane of every freshman's existence are her assignments."

"No! Don't!"

The two girls stopped at the sound of a high and boyish scream. They turned their heads just in time to hear the flush of a toilet coming from the nearby boys' bathroom.

Rachel sighed. "Should we save the poor kid from Beetle's wrath?"

But Abby shook her head. "Abby ain't getting involved in that mess. The kid's on his own."

* * *

"Please, Wally! Let me go!" the small freshman cried as he struggled against his tormentor's grip.

Wallabee Beetles ignored the kid as he continued to drag him from the bathroom. He ignored how the kid's hair dripped onto his arm, wet from the swirly he'd put the kid through. He pulled the kid from the bathroom and to the locker that had been left open just six lockers down from the bathroom door.

"Ok, so I think a couple of periods in solitary locker confinement is sufficient enough," Wally claimed as other students parted to let him through. No one was willing to get in the way of Wally and his mission of teaching this young man a lesson.

"No, don't! I promise, Wally, I won't happen again! Please!" the freshman begged.

"I know it won't," Wally replied. "That's the point of the punishment. To be sure it doesn't happen again." Then he unceremoniously threw the kid into the locker, and slammed the door shut. "And who knows, maybe you'll get lucky and someone will know the combination and let you out. Either way, I'd better never see you hovering around her locker ever again! Got it?" He gave the locker door a firm hit, which elicited a small and surprised shriek from the boy inside. Then he whirled around and sauntered away.

Wally grinned as he looked over the heads of most of his classmates. Around the time he'd turned fourteen, he'd finally hit that growth spurt he'd been wishing for. He was now the tallest kid in the senior class. And thanks to his love and talent for sports, he was also the strongest. He no longer kept his hair in a bowl cut, but instead it was now a mess around his head. But his hair was rarely seen covering his eyes anymore, and he did his best to keep it that way, for reasons he kept to himself. He was dressed in a solid black muscle tee with baggy jeans that were a bit worn at the knees.

"Beetles!"

Wally stopped walking. He wasn't worried, since there was no way the teachers could have found out about the _lesson_ he'd just taught that freshman. He usually made it to third period before he was called to the principal's office.

He turned around, and perked up when he saw his football coach, Coach Tosi, walking his way. "Hey, Coach! Need something?"

Coach looked irritated, but it was hard for Wally to guess why. The man always seemed to be scowling. "Yeah. We need our star wide receiver to pass Jones's government test this Friday, or he'll be failing the class and unable to play."

Wally groaned. "And?" He knew where this was going…

"So I need our team captain, and the smartest guy on the team, to tutor him and get him through that test. So get to it, Beetles. Otherwise you ain't gunna have the best wide receiver to throw the ball to this weekend," Coach Tosi commanded.

Wally groaned even louder. He _hated_ doing his _own_ homework, let alone helping someone else with theirs! He wished that the coach had never found out that he was currently sitting at the top of the senior class ranking.

Wally knew that he hadn't been the smartest bulb in the box when he was a kid. But once his grades had started to affect his eligibility to play sports, he'd buckled down and tried to do better his freshman year. And he'd found that it was surprisingly easy! Now he had some of the best grades in his classes.

"Beetles, we need Charlie to be eligible to play. So do what you have to, and help," Coach Tosi stated. He patted Wally on the shoulder before walking away. "You can do it, Wallabee."

Wally kicked the locker to his left. "Cruddy Charlie and his cruddy test," he grumbled. "I've got a movie date tonight! I'm not getting stuck helping that idiot all night!"

* * *

"Miss Sanban, put the phone away. This is your last warning," Mrs. Thompson said firmly, narrowing her eyes at the student in violation of classroom rules.

Kuki Sanban gave her chemistry teacher a sheepish smile before slipping the phone back into her bag. What was she to do? It wasn't _her_ fault that her little sister kept texting her about the meltdown she had with her equally little boyfriend. Personally, Kuki hated the little brat her sister called _boyfriend_ , but Mushi rarely listened to reason.

Kuki Sanban had always been cheerful, energetic, and girly as a kid. And as she'd grown and matured, she took those characteristics to the football field and joined the cheerleading team. She'd found a passion for it, and even became captain of the team her junior year. Kuki was also the girl that was friends with pretty much everybody. She was considered too sweet and too cute, and practically impossible to dislike, by most. Today she was dressed in a flowing black skirt that danced around her knees, and a V-neck, form-fitting green shirt. Her hair was pulled up into a high ponytail with her bangs swept away from her eyes, a flower clip holding them back.

As Mrs. Thompson continued with her lecture, Kuki couldn't help but notice her phone lighting up from inside her bag. Glancing to make sure the teacher was still occupied, she snuck her phone back out to check the text message she'd just gotten from her sister.

 _"Sandy jst passed me a note saying tht I'm jst being a baby! Wut do I say back?"_

Kuki rolled her eyes. Mushi's middle school romance was always doused with problems lately, and she never understood why her sister came to her. Kuki made no secret about how much she disliked her boyfriend Sandy, yet Mushi always wanted her to help save their relationship.

 _"Tell him that he's just being a brat. And arrogant, and snotty, and everything else I tell you all the time!"_

Kuki couldn't really remember what it was exactly about Sandy that had made her dislike him so much, but she couldn't shake it. Mushi always says that it was because Sandy passed Kuki up for someone younger. But she didn't remember anything like that, and couldn't see herself ever being interested in a little brat like him.

Her phone blinked a blue light in her hand. She opened the new text.

 _" . . . do u mind if we had a grls nite? I jst wanna 4get about the dumb fight."_

Kuki sighed. This was Mushi's usual request whenever she and Sandy had a fight. A girls' night. An evening where the sisters hung out in their pajamas, ate ice cream, and watched movies like "10 Things I Hate About You". Anything to help her forget about whatever immature fight she'd had with her immature boyfriend.

 _"Sorry, but I'm going to The Max with some friends."_

Kuki loved her little sister dearly, but she was getting a little tired of having to listen to her complain about her boyfriend and all the new problems they were facing in their young relationship. And no matter how much she wanted to support her sister, it was getting a little ridiculous. It was to the point where she'd much rather hang out with her friends than listen to the same sob story over a tub of ice cream.

 _"U hang out with ur cheerleading friends after practice almost every day! Can't u jst hang out with me at least 1 nite?"_

Kuki dropped her phone into her bag. Not because she thought Mrs. Thompson was catching on to her using her phone again, but because of her annoyance with her little sister. It was never just _one_ night lately. She felt like she was dealing with her sister a lot more than she was hanging out with her friends.

Besides, these plans for tonight had been set in place for a while now, and there was no way she was passing it up.

* * *

Hoagie moaned with delight as he stuffed his mouth full of some of the best chili cheese fries in town. He sat at a table alone, while other teens sat in groups at tables and booths. His friends would be here at any moment, but he was too hungry to wait to eat.

"Why am I not surprised to find you stuffing your mouth with chili cheese fries?"

Hoagie looked up from his basket of food, and a goofy smile took over his lips when he saw Abby standing by the table. She was giving him an amused look, and one that said she was tempted to roll her eyes at him. She sat down to his left. "You've also got some cheese smeared across yo' chin."

Hoagie quickly grabbed a napkin to wipe his face off. He blushed when she began to chuckle. "Hey, Abby. How was your day?" He felt like a bit of an idiot. She always made him a flustered mess, while she would sit there as cool and relaxed as ever.

Abby crossed her arms and rested them on the table. "Same ole' routine as always. And you? Your beat up car make it here, or did ya walk?" she teased.

"My car is just fine," Hoagie defended. "Just you wait. I'm going to make that thing so cool, it'll fly." He knew she was right, though. His car _was_ a grade-A piece of junk.

Abby smiled and reached over to give his hand a squeeze. "Sure it will, baby."

Hoagie blushed again at Abby's term of endearment. It was still unbelievable to him that, after trying to gain her attention for the last three years, he could finally call Abigail Lincoln his girlfriend!

"Look at this! The guy gets a cruddy girlfriend, and now it's like his face is permanently pink!"

Hoagie pulled his hand away, trying to seem cool and casual too. But he couldn't get rid of his blush as Wally approached their table, his arm around the waist of head cheerleader, Kuki. The usual crass and hotheaded boy stopped at the table, and in a gentlemanly manner, pulled a chair out for his girlfriend, before sitting down himself. If anyone brought the gentle and kind side out of Wallabee Beetles, it was his girlfriend and love of his life, Kuki Sanban.

"I don't think you're one to talk," Abby joked. "Once you finally said something to Kuki, your face was bright red for like six months straight!"

"Yeah!" Hoagie said in a childish tone and manner, grinning at his best friend.

Wally just threw an arm over the back of Kuki's chair. "Yeah, well so what?" he muttered.

Hoagie laughed. "So, I heard that Paddy Fulbright found himself stuck in a locker and smelling like a toilet bowl this morning."

While Wally laughed too, Kuki smacked her boyfriend's shoulder and crossed her arms. "I cannot believe you did that to him! He's just a freshman! And you know that Fanny is going to be on your case for it."

Wally just shrugged. "He shouldn't have let me catch him staring at my girlfriend. Seems like I've gotta teach some runt that lesson every year."

Abby rolled her eyes, yet she couldn't help but smile at the overprotective nature of Wally. As much as she teased him, she was happy that he and Kuki were together. No couple balanced each other out like those two, and she'd never seen the two as happy as they were once they started dating. "So, I was gunna ask you fools if you don't mind seeing an earlier showing of the movie? Cree's coming home tonight, and I thought I'd spend part of the night hanging out with her."

"Cree's coming home?" Kuki asked with mild surprise. "She rarely comes home."

"Yeah, what's the occasion?" Wally questioned.

Abby's smile brightened a little at the thought of her sister being home, if only for a few days. "I guess Maurice's grandma is sick, and he wanted to come down and visit her. So Cree decided to come along to support him, and to take the chance to spend some time at home. Like ya said, she rarely gets to come home from school."

Abby was very close with her older sister, Cree. There was a brief time when she was young that they fought a lot. Abby couldn't remember the reason, or if there _was_ a reason, but she assumed it was just because she was a kid that was always trying to hang out with her big sister, and was always bothering her and her older friends. Kind of like how it was between Hoagie and Tommy now.

"Yeah, we can hit the seven o'clock showing instead," Hoagie agreed. "And then we'll meet up at the usual later tonight?"

"Wouldn't miss it!" Kuki assured.

Wally smiled. "Sounds good. I'll be there."

* * *

"So how's high school treatin' ya, little sis?" Cree asked as she leaned against the doorway to Abby's bedroom.

Despite it being almost midnight, and their parents already sleeping, Abby didn't look like she was getting ready for bed. She wasn't in pajamas, wasn't brushing her teeth, had no signs of bedtime at all. In fact, her shoes were still on, and a she was still dressed as if she were going out with friends. The only thing that was different was that she was pulling her hair loose and running a brush through it quickly.

Abby gave her sister a smile. It was so nice to have Cree home, and she'd love nothing more than to stay up late into the night, talking with her. Ignoring the fact that she had school in the morning. But she already had plans of how she as going to spend the late hours of the night, and it was too important to her and the group to skip.

"It's all good. Just trying to take it easy this year," Abby replied, continuing to brush her hair.

Cree nodded as she stepped further into the room, looking at some of the pictures that Abby had taped to the wall. She laughed lightly at one. "I still cannot believe that you're dating Hoagie Gilligan now. I remember babysitting that kid and his baby brother when you were kids."

Abby rolled her eyes, but smiled. "What can I say? He was persistent, and he grew on me." Abby then gave her sister a knowing look. "So . . . you're not gunna rat me out to Mom and Dad, right?"

Cree grinned as she looked at her little sister. "Well considering the fact that _I_ used to sneak out all the time to be with my boyfriend, it'd be a bit hypocritical of me to rat you out," she teased.

Abby smiled as she opened her window. "Thanks, Cree."

Cree smiled in return as she made her way for the door. "Any time, sis. Be smart."

Abby's smile softened as the door closed. "I always am," she whispered. Now that her sister had left the room, she walked to her closet and moved aside a stack of old books. Behind it sat an old, red hat. With the same soft smile, she put it on. After shutting off her light, she quietly snuck out of the house, and made her way down to the corner where Hoagie would pick her up.

This was the hat of her childhood. While she couldn't remember why or when, she knew Cree had given it to her and it meant a lot to her. Any picture you could find of Abby's childhood, she was wearing that same hat. When she'd entered high school, she stopped wearing it every day. But there was still one occasion where she _always_ wore it. And that occasion was tonight.

* * *

On top of one of the highest hills in town sat two cars. One was a beat up Oldsmobile, the other a rustic black truck. Four teenagers on the cusp of young adulthood sat on the vehicles, staring up at the stars.

Sitting on the hood of the Oldsmobile sat Hoagie Gilligan and Abigail Lincoln. Just like Abby wore her childhood hat, Hoagie had stolen back his old goggles, which now rested over his eyes.

The truck had been backed up, and the tailgate was down. Sitting on the tailgate was Wallabee Beetles and Kuki Sanban. Wally had changed into an orange hoodie. He'd worn one all the time as a kid. And while he'd obviously outgrown the old one, he'd bought another one for occasions like this.

And sitting on Kuki's lap was a small red collar, the tag reading _KND_. She wasn't sure what the KND stood for, but she remembered the collar. It had belong to a pet the group of them had taken care of when they were young. A baby skunk that she and Hoagie had named Bradley. They hadn't seen him for years, and they were sure that he'd just run off. He _was_ a wild animal, after all. All Kuki had left of him was the collar. The only reminder that he _had_ been part of their lives.

The four teenagers had been friends for as long as they could remember. None of them could remember when or what it was that had bonded them so closely as kids, but none of them could deny that they cared for one another. They couldn't deny that they were made to be best friends. But they were missing someone. They were missing one of their best friends, which was why they were here tonight.

Nigel Uno.

He was the fifth best friend to their tightknit group. They'd grown up together, until he disappeared. Moved away suddenly, leaving no parting words for his friends. It was something they'd all taken hard as kids, but the pain had lessened a little over time.

They all wondered where their friend had gone. Why he left without a word. And they all missed him. His disappearance left a noticeable hole in their lives. So whenever they found themselves thinking of him a lot, they all met out on this hill to look up at the stars. Something about those stars gave them a sense of being closer to him. Perhaps it was because he could be looking up at the exact same stars.

"I remember meeting him back when we were like six," Hoagie whispered with a sad smile. He was the one that had brought up to the others about how'd he'd been thinking of Nigel a lot lately. How he'd been missing his best friend. "Even back then he was so cool. A fighter."

"Really? I remember him always being a bit hotheaded and always rushing into things head first," Abby laughed gently as she pushed the brim of her hat down a little.

Hoagie chuckled too. "Remember that time we caught him going on a date with Lizzie Devine?"

Abby laughed again. "He was so flustered! I can't believe he didn't tell us about her."

"Probably because he thought we'd tease him . . . which we did," Hoagie joked.

Abby nodded. "True. Nigel Uno . . . he was one of a kind."

"He was like a brother," Wally mentioned to Kuki. He played with the drawstrings to his hoodie. "Whenever I was getting way out of line, he was there to bring me back. I'd have probably ended up a total bully if it hadn't been for him."

"I miss when we would all meet up and eat breakfast together, and have a bowl of Rainbow Munchies," Kuki murmured. "Or when we'd watch TV and end up fighting for the remote. It was so much fun."

Wally placed an arm around his girlfriend, giving her shoulder a comforting squeeze. "It was."

Kuki looked at him, and then reached forward to push his hair away from his eyes. "I know you used to hide your eyes when were kids, but I think they're too pretty to be stuck behind your hair," she teased softly.

Wally blushed a little. "Pretty's a girl word," he grumbled, although he hardly sounded irritated.

"You think we'll see him again?" Hoagie spoke to the whole group. He looked up at the night sky. "Like maybe he'll just come back into town one day?"

Wally stare up too, but a bit more dejectedly. "I don't know. He didn't even say goodbye. He just disappeared. It's been a long time. He might not even remember us."

"He does," Abby said with certainty. "I'm sure he thinks about us just as much as we do about him."

"And we _will_ see him again," Kuki added. "Best friends are never apart forever!"

"But we're going off to college next year," Wally pointed out. "And we're not even sure what schools we're going to. He could come back to town and we could be in completely different states."

"Going off to college doesn't mean anything," Abby argued with a smile. "I mean, _we'll_ still be friends when we go off to school. Distance and time doesn't change true best friends."

Hoagie smiled. "Yeah. You're right, girls. One day. One day, we'll see him again."

Four teenagers on the cusp of young adulthood, but felt nothing like adults. Four teenagers that sat in the middle of the night, cherishing the items and memories of their childhoods. Four teenagers that still acted like children. Boys that stuffed their faces when they ate, talked with their mouths full, wrestled for the remote, horsed around, and played with toys (even if their new toys were their cars). A girl that frequented candy stores and ice cream parlors more than any ten-year-old kid in town. A girl that still watched cartoons and had a room full of pink and stuffed animals. Four teenagers that joked around, teased each other, and played around like children.

Four teenagers that would forever be best friends, and would forever be waiting for their missing best friend to return.

"Nigel Uno," Abby whispered into the night sky, "what are you up to now?"

 _Memories may be fleeting. But friendship is enduring._

* * *

End Transmission. . .


End file.
